The ground filter for an aquarium differently call "false bottom". It provides not only mechanical water purification, but also natural: through soil. However this equipment has advantages and shortcomings.
How does the ground filter function?
The false bottom represents a thin, but strong plastic plate with a set of the openings drilled in it. On this punched cloth which stack soil. It can be executed also in the form of a lattice with a small cell. From a reverse side of a plate the pomp, the system of tubes for a water intake, the filter are strengthened. Ground filters are completed differently, but all of them work by one principle: pump out water from under soil, purify it and return in an aquarium.
Pluses and minuses of the ground filter
Undoubted advantage of a ground way of filtration of water – high-quality biological and mechanical cleaning. The advantage of this equipment and that it is almost imperceptible under a plate or a lattice. It is especially relevant for those who seek to create registration of an aquarium as close as possible to natural.
In addition, the false bottom allows to support a microclimate, optimum for fishes. Plus this equipment and that it will provide faultless clarification of a bottom where waste of activity of fishes, sterns, fragments of seaweed accumulate. If the aquarium small, the power of a pomp provides uniform current of water. If the capacity of solid volume, any of ground filters can not cope with the task as at an exit of purified water it needs to overcome resistance of the above-located layer. Therefore pure liquid can be only in the lower part of an aquarium, without reaching its top. When using a ground way of filtration the recommended soil thickness – 5-8 cm. One more minus of these filters is that they are quite difficult in service. Installation of the ground equipment in already working aquarium will require its full reorganization. The soil laid on a false bottom has to be rather large as small it is not capable to provide the required water current that considerably will worsen its filtration. The design of some models of ground filters assumes existence of a small crack between a plate with the equipment installed under it and glass of an aquarium. It is fraught with risk of penetration under a false bottom of the smallest small fishes. Therefore from under a plate it is necessary to take snails, whitebaits, shrimps. This complicates care for an aquarium too. Using the ground filter, it is necessary to know that he is pretty fast killed and demands cleaning. Experienced aquarians solve this problem, having provided the return current of water by means of the kanistrovy filter connected as appropriate. In the course of its work, dirt begins to come out through soil and to rise to a water surface. It can lead to a lack of oxygen of an aquarium therefore it is better to carry out such cleaning at the switched-on compressor.